ECOR 1101 Mechanics I

Sections D and E
Course Instructor: Jack van den Berg

notes derived from prof. Abass Braimah

Lecture 01 – Introduction (Chapter 1)

January 6, 2015
What is Mechanics?

 Study of bodies when acted upon by forces. The

body is at rest or in motion.
 Either the bodies or the forces can be large.

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Branches of Mechanics

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Fundamental Units (Dimensions)

 Four fundamental physical quantities

(dimensions)
 Length: Used to locate a body in space and to measure
the size of bodies (m, ft)
 Mass: Used to measure the quantity of matter in a body
(kg, slugs)
 Time: Used to measure the succession of events (s)
 Force: Used to measure a “push” or “pull” exerted by
one body on another (lb, N)

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Systems of Units

 We will work with two systems of units in

mechanics
 SI – Système International d’Unités
 US Customary System (Imperial Units)

 Both systems have three base units and one

derived unit

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Base and Derived Units

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Conversion of Units

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 Dimensional Homogeneity
 In Mechanics, the terms of all equations must be
dimensionally homogeneous
 In other words:
 Dimensions of LHS = Dimensions of RHS
 Consider the kinematic equation:

v f  vi  at
m m m
  2 s
s s s

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Models and Idealizations in Mechanics
Models and idealizations are often used in mechanics to
simply problems.

Particle: A particle has mass but negligible size. Can the

earth be considered as a particle?
Rigid Body: A rigid body can be considered as a collection
of particles but all particles remain fixed with respect to
one another under load.
Concentrated Force: When the area of load application is
small relative to the size of the body.

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Newton’s Laws of Motion

 Engineering mechanics is formulated on

Newton’s Laws of Motion
 The laws were postulated based on experimental
observation
 The laws apply to the motion of a particle with
reference to a non-accelerating reference frame

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Newton’s Laws of Motion
 2’nd Law: A particle of mass (m) acted upon by an
unbalanced system of Forces (F) experiences an
acceleration (a) in the same direction as the force and
with a magnitude proportional to the force.

F=ma

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Newton’s Laws of Motion
 1’st Law: A particle at rest or in motion will continue in
its state of rest or motion unless acted upon by an
unbalanced system of forces.

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Newton’s Laws of Motion
 3’rd Law: For every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction.

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Newton’s Law of Gravitational Attraction
 States that two bodies are attracted by a force of
gravity
 F = force of gravity between the two particles
 m1, m2 = mass of each particles
 R = distance between the two particles
 G = universal constant of Gravitation
G = 66.73×10-12 m3/(kg.s2)

m1
r
-F
+F

m2

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Weight of a Body
 Consider an object of mass (m) on the surface of the
earth
 The force exerted between the body and the earth, ie.
The body’s weight (W) is given as:

M em
W  mg  G 2
r

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Accuracy of Numerical Calculations

 Depends on:
 Accuracy of the data provided; and,
 Accuracy of computations.
 Solution of computations cannot be more
accurate than the least accurate of the given
data

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Significant Figures
 The number of significant figures conveys the accuracy
of a number.
 Number of significant figures?
 4903
 23,500
 0.00356
 Use Engineering notation (not the same as scientific
notation)
 4.903  103
 23.5  103 or 23.50  103
 3.56  10-3

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Calculations
 Round-off only your final answer.
 Calculations should be to 4 significant figures and your
answers rounded off to 3.
 In mechanics, geometries, accuracy of measurements,
and determining actual forces means it is rarely possible
to obtain more than 3 significant figures
 Keep your units in your calculations and final answers
 Marks will be deducted for not using appropriate units

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• No Plurals (e.g., m = 5 kg not kgs )
• Separate Units with a • (dot)
 meter*second = m • s not ms
millisecond)
• Most symbols are in lowercase (m, km, s,
kg, etc)
(Except for  N, Pa, M and G)
• Exponential powers apply to units,
•e.g., cm • cm = cm2
• Compound prefixes should not be used.
• Other rules are given in the textbook.
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Sample Problem
 If a car is travelling at 55.0 mi/hr, determine its speed
in:
 A) km/hr and;
 B) m/s.

A)
mi mi 5280 ft 0.3048 m 0.001 km km km
55.0  55.0  88.51392  88.5
h h 1 mi 1 ft 1m h h

B)

mi mi 5280 ft 0.3048 m 1 h 1 min m m

55.0  55.0  24.5872  24.6
h h 1 mi 1 ft 60 min 60 s s s

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Important - Reminder
 Try to develop a ‘sense’ for the numbers
 Always use appropriate terms – Use ‘engineering’
language
 Become familiar and get ‘comfortable’ with using
engineering terminology
 Understand how loads travel from one body to another
(load path)
 Always use appropriate units
 Use four sig figs in your calcs and round-off to three sig
figs for final answer
 Always use Engineering Notation
 Marks will be deducted if you don’t follow these basic
rules ! Sorry but that’s how it works!

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Recommended Problems

 See Recommended Problems in cuLearn for

each Lecture.

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